The Sea of Time
by Eldunari Liduen
Summary: When responding to a distress call on one of the Federation's colony planets, the Enterprise and her crew arrive too late to save all of the colonists from the explosion of their main reactor. Some of them are able to be transported aboard the ship before the force of the explosion and radiation kill them, along with a very strange man with two hearts.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own either Doctor Who or Star Trek: The Next Generation.**

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_Captain's Log, stardate 44642.9. The _Enterprise_ is en route at warp eight to the planet Aetas IV in the Tou Cantu Abit system- planet that is home to approximately ten thousand people. According to their distress call, the nuclear generator that the colonists use for power is overloading and quickly deteriorating. Along with the_ Enterprise,_ several other Federation ships in the sector are warping to the scene and some have already arrived. It is hoped that if the reactor is unable to be repaired in time that the_ Enterprise_'s greater transporter capacity will be able to bring those on the planet's surface to safety._

"Status, Number One?" the Captain Jean-Luc Picard asked as he exited his ready room and stepped onto the bridge of the _Enterprise._

"We'll be arriving in just minutes, sir. Medical teams have been posted in every transporter room should sickbay be unable to keep up with the rate of transport that may be necessary and Dr. Crusher has been in contact with the other ships to coordinate plans for providing extra personnel to their medical teams if the need arises," the bearded first officer, Commander William T Riker reported. "The ships that have arrived at Aetas IV are beginning evacuation of all civilians from the areas surrounding the main reactor."

"Very good," he nodded, glancing at the large screen at the front of the bridge. "Mr. Data, take us into standard orbit when we arrive, but be prepared to take us out quickly if need be. The blast from that reactor could reach us if the situation is dire enough. Probably wouldn't do too much damage, but I don't want to risk it- not with the shields down for transport."

"Yes, sir," the android- Lieutenant Commander and second officer Data- said. "We are dropping out of orbit now."

"Sir," a deeper, almost growling voice said from behind the captain's chair, "incoming transmission from the planet."

"On screen."

"_Enterprise_! You've arrived just in time," a voice said, though distorted and the picture refused to resolve itself into a recognizable face. "Our power supply is just abo-" The message cut off, static replacing whatever the colonist had been trying to communicate.

"Mr. Worf, can you restore the connection?"

"Negative, sir," the Klingon officer said, shaking his head. "There is too much interference from the breakdown of the reactor."

"Then let us hope there is not too much interference to beam them aboard. Yellow alert, all stations. Mr. Data, bring us within transporter range. Mr. O'Brian, begin transporting the colonists- any sign of life that you can lock onto- on board starting with those closest to the power supply and working outwards from there."

"Yes, sir," the affirmation came from both at nearly the same time.

"Mr. Worf, contact the other ships- make sure that they are aware of the situation on the planet and get a status report on what areas have already been evacuated and relay that information to Mr. O'Brian. Dr. Crusher ha-"

The Captain was cut off as an explosion rocked the planet below. On the screen, the entire bridge watched as Aetas IV's one and only inhabited continent became victim to a quickly spreading fire. Apart from the electronic blips and other ambient noise, there was complete silence among the members of the bridge crew. Without any instructions, Data put the ship into reverse to make sure that the ship would not be in harm's way.

"Sensors show that radiation levels have increased exponentially on the planet," he reported once the _Enterprise_ was still again. "A lethal point was reached just seconds after the reactor failed." Turning his seat around so he was facing the rest of his crewmates he said, "The only surviving colonists are the ones who have been beamed on board. The rest have been killed in the explosion or by the resulting radiation."

"Dr. Crusher to the bridge. Can you repeat your message please?"

"Any further patients will be from the other transporter rooms, doctor. The generator has failed."

"Understood," the redheaded doctor nodded, tapping her badge to deactivate it. Moving around sickbay, she watched as those under her command tended to the wounds of those injured in the reaction core's pre-melt down. The vast majority of them seemed to belong to the team that had been in charge of the power station if their uniforms were anything to go by. Injuries seemed to range from anything to burns to a few broken limbs depending on how close to the generator's implosion they had been transported out.

One of the patients caught her eye, though, his clothes seemingly out of place among the official wear of those around him. A brown, pinstriped, possibly 21st century design suit wasn't exactly the type of clothing she would have expected someone who was that close to the core to be wearing. Noting a similar look of confusion on the ensign's face who was treating the man, Beverly walked over.

"Something the matter, Alexi?" she asked, standing on the opposite side of the medbay bed from her, the man still under sedatives for the moment.

The ensign shook her head. "I'm getting some very strange readings is all. Were all of the colonists on Aetas IV human?"

"There might have been a few with a parent from another species, but from my understanding of the file they were all basically human. Why?"

"Take a look for yourself," Alexi said, handing her tricorder to the doctor.

Looking over the information that had been scanned into the device, Dr. Crusher's confusion just deepened. "Binary vascular system, lower body temperature, tubular respiratory system… And that just looks like the most basic of differences. I wonder…."

"We had to use a different setting on the hypospray in order to sedate him, too," she continued to explain. "Normal settings wouldn't get through his skin and with the struggle he put up, it wasn't an option to not sedate him."

With no warning, the man's eyes snapped open and he sat up, his body rigid. "How many survivors?" he demanded in an accent that would not be out of place on a faraway Earth country, England.

"You need rest, you've been injured," Dr. Crusher said, gently but firmly pushing down on his chest.

"How many survivors?" he repeated, a sort of maniac panic in his voice. His brown eyes searched the doctor's face for an answer, almost pleading for her to tell him.

"W-we don't know yet," she said, motioning for a hypospray. "An official count hasn't been made. The reactor exploded only minutes ago. We're still trying to deal with injuries right now and we have to communicate with the other ships to see how many they were able to transport on board, but we'll know soon enough. Now," she smiled softly, hypospray in hand, "you need to get some rest."

Once the anesthetic was administered, the man's eyes rolled back in into his head and his body relaxed. Beverly reached over to his necktie, loosening it so that he could breathe easier.

"I want you to keep an eye on him. I know we have no clear baseline for what's supposed to be normal for him- certainly not a species I'm familiar with right of the bat- but let me know if there's any changes," she instructed Alexi, blue eyes studying the man's facial features as he slept. "He should sleep for a little while longer- long enough to get everyone else all set since I haven't seen any major injuries yet. Do what you can for him. I'm sure the captain will want to ask him a few questions seeing as how he's the only non-human that's been reported so far."

"Do you think…?"

"I just know that he's injured and needs to be taken care of. If he's involved in what happened somehow, that's not our main concern right now nor should we be jumping to conclusions, understood?"

Alexi nodded. "Of course, doctor."

On the medbay bed between them, the man seemed to react to that word, 'doctor,' raising his head slightly and trying to open his eyes, but falling back after only a brief moment. His reaction was passed off as nothing out of the ordinary by those around him who quickly fell back into their normal routine.

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**A/N: **I hope that you have enjoyed the first chapter of my first ever Star Trek fic and my first crossover story in a long time! Just on a timeline note: This story is set approximately mid-season 4 for TNG [along with being pre-11th Doctor encounter in the Assimilation^2 comics] and post-The Next Doctor for the Doctor himself. Please bear with me if I make any mistakes in Star Trek canon as I am still working my way through The Next Generation series. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

_**I do not own either Doctor Who or Star Trek: The Next Generation.**_

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_Captain's Log, supplemental. After communications with the _Crown _and the _Courage,_ we have been able to determine that there are 457 survivors of this catastrophe on Aetas IV. Dr. Crusher has informed me, though, that despite records and founding documents saying that the colony was only populated by humans who had moved to the planet from Earth along with a few of mixed parentage or grand-parentage, an unidentified humanoid alien was beamed aboard during the emergency evacuation attempt. The severity of his wounds may indicate that he was nearby the reaction core generator when it began to malfunction. However, it would seem that a complication in the healing process has arisen._

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"Can you explain this to me once more, doctor?" Captain Picard said, sitting in a chair in Dr. Crusher's office in sickbay.

"When we first realized that he was…different, shall we say, we took readings so we'd have something to compare any fluctuations to," she began again, scrolling through the readings to show the captain. "Of course there was no way of telling if these were normal or not, but not long after I'd left Alexi to tend to his injuries, we thought we lost all life signs on him- his temperature plummeted, couldn't find his hearts beats, signs like that which you can see plummeted right about here in his charts. But when we adjusted the equipment we found that he was alive just in some sort of….comma. And since then his injuries have begun to heal at a remarkable rate."

"Could this be related to the Zalkonians in any way?" he asked, naming a race of aliens that the _Enterprise_ had run into not too long ago. They had been experiencing changes that allowed them to heal themselves and others almost instantly- even bringing Worf back from the brink of death after his neck had been broken.

Standing from her seat to pace behind her desk, Dr. Crusher shook her head. "No, the biological make up is completely different. As far as I can tell he's fine- just in a very deep sleep. Now, you said that Deanna and Worf have been talking to the others who would have been near the ex- Whoa, whoa, whoa where do you think you're going?" she said, rushing over to the door of her office seeing the man- somehow well enough to walk and who had somehow apparently been able to get up without setting off any of the sensors- going past.

"I need to find my erhm…. My … Blimey, what the hell kind of anesthetic did you give me? Granted this turned out a lot better than the last time I got myself knocked unconscious in a hospital or medical facility of any kind but _still,_" he said, running a through his spiked brown hair and squinting as he tried to think. "You'd think you'd think twice before giving the same medicine to someone who's clearly not human. Might look it but in all reality we were around for quite a while before you lot showed up.

"Right, ah…" Dr. Crusher said, still trying to process everything that the man had just said. Who knew that just-post-coma patients could be so talkative? Still, he was a different species, of that she had no doubts. "I'm positive that the effects will wear off once it's out of your system. But until then, you need to lie back down for your own safety," she said to him, gently guiding him back to the bed he'd been resting in.

With a huff, the man complied by getting hoisting himself up onto the bed in a sitting position. Rubbing at the back of his neck, he looked around the sickbay before focusing on something just behind Beverly. "You'd be the captain, I assume. If I'm remembering my facts correctly right now, that is."

"I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard and this is th-"

"The _Enterprise_," the man finished, eyes widening in something akin to shock or surprise, recognition of the names very clearly reflected on his face. "I mean I…. Blimey, the _Enterprise_."

"You've heard of this ship then?" he asked, moving to stand next to Dr. Crusher now.

"Of course I have. I mean I'd be surprised if you could run into anyone that _doesn't_ know the name _Enterprise_- both from this ship and her namesake. Flagship of the Federation and all that. It's an honor to meet you, Captain," he continued, a large, genuine grin spreading across his features.

"I can't say I have the same pleasure of knowing who you are Mr.-?"

"Hm?" he said, quirking an eyebrow in momentary confusion. "Ah, right, yes. Sorry. I'm the Doctor."

"The Doctor? Doctor who?" Dr. Crusher repeated in a cross between concern and confusion.

"Just the Doctor," he insisted. "It's what I've gone by for…quite a long time at the very least."

"How long exactly is 'a long time'?" Captain Picard asked, wishing to figure out what this man's story was before he had to hear what the others who had been in the power station had to say. As Beverly had pointed out, Deanna and Worf were talking to them now so they could present their findings to him later, but he much preferred to hear both sides of the story first- even if this Doctor didn't actually have anything to do with what had occurred. But it was his responsibility to investigate that possibility.

"Oooh, nine centuries give or take a few years. Gets a little difficult to keep track of after a while," he said matter-of-factly with a small shrug.

The captain's next question was cut off by a voice over his comms badge, though he gave the Doctor a slightly unbelieving look.

"Worf to Captain Picard."

"Go ahead Mr. Worf," he replied.

"Captain, the two chief engineers from Aetas IV wish to speak with you. They are refusing to wait any longer."

"Understood. Have them meet me in my ready room. Please ask Counselor Troi to report to sickbay to talk to our guest. Dr. Crusher, Doctor," he said, nodding to each in turn before leaving for the bridge.

"Nine centuries?" Beverly asked once the captain had left, taking a few steps towards the Doctor. "You certainly don't look it."

"Ah, well, a slower aging process among a few other tricks," he chuckled. "This is actually the youngest I've looked in a while."

Dr. Crusher found herself smiling along with this strange man, something about his demeanor putting her at ease despite her confusion surrounding him. "Well, you certainly put the captain off guard with that statement. You did have myself and my medical team worried for a while there, though."

"Yeah, I ah… wouldn't have done that normally but the anesthetic sort of triggered that I suppose. It's just my body's way of devoting more energy to healing itself when the injuries aren't life threatening but still severe enough. Probably wasn't exactly bad enough for that to happen, but since I was asleep anyways…" the Doctor shrugged. "Guess it was triggered. Anyways, no harm done really. At least in this time my two hearts wouldn't be passed off as a double exposure and operated on because it sounded like I was fibrillating."

"Working on a starship exposes you to all sorts of biological differences. I'd be a very poor doctor if I didn't think these sorts of things possible," Beverly smiled warmly, though wondering what sort of doctor would make that assumption- especially in this day and age. "Now, Deanna- our ship's counselor- will be here soon to talk to you and I'm sure Captain Picard will have more questions for you so why don't you try to get some rest?"

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"Chief Engineers Hartnell and Shatner," Captain Picard said with his customary polite smile, extending a hand to shake to each of the two men in turn before taking a seat at the conference room table. "I would have preferred our meeting to be one marked by a successful evacuation rather than the tragedy that transpired today."

"As would we, Captain," the man on the left- Hartnell- said. "We lost a lot of good men and women today- both on our engineering teams and those who were simply members of the colony."

"The investigation will take some time," the other- Shatner- said with a clear frown on his face. "But according to more than one of the members of the team that had been working on the reactor core, you have the very man that we believe to be responsible for this meltdown on board your ship."

"We do?"

"Indeed, Captain. A man who calls himself 'the Doctor.'"


End file.
